Vought F-8E(FN) Crusader

Last revised January 22, 2000

In 1962, the French Navy (Marine Nationale) ordered the Vought F-8
Crusader as a carrier-based air superiority fighter to succeed the
Aquilon. It was to serve aboard the new Aeronautique Navale
(Aeronavale) aircraft carriers Foch and Clemenceau. The French
aviation industry was unable to come up with an acceptable design, so
the French Navy somewhat reluctantly opted for an American aircraft.

The French Crusader was designated F-8E(FN), where the FN stood for
"French Navy". The Marine Nationale originally planeed to order 40
single seat F-8E(FN) fighters, plus six TF-8E(FN) two-seaters.
However, when plans for the development of the two-seat Crusader were
abandoned, the order was changed to 42 F-8E(FN) single-seaters. The
42 F-8E(FN) aircraft were assigned the Bureau of Aeronautics serial
numbers 151732/151773 for administrative purposes.

The F-8E(FN) had to be modified so that it could operate safely aboard
French aircraft carriers, which were somewhat smaller than their
American counterparts. In order to reduce the approach speed, the
maximum angle of incidence of the variable-incidence wing was
increased from five to seven degrees. The drooping wing leading edges
were separated into two sections in order to increase the amount of
camber that could be achieved when they were extended. A boundary
layer control system was added, which blew pressurized air from the
engine compressor through adjustable air vents that exhausted over the
trailing edge wing flaps. The airflow pressure automatically
increased with the angle of flap deflection. The maximum angle of
deflection of the trailing-edge flaps was increased. The surface area
of the tailplane was increased.

The quartet of four 20-mm cannon was retained, as well as the ability
to carry four fuselage-mounted AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles. However,
provision was also made to accommodate the French-built Matra R530
air-to-air missile, which existed in both infrared and semi-active
radar homing versions. One R530 was carried on each side of the fuselage
on rail launchers. Often, an infrared-homing R530 would be carried in
one side of the fuselage, with a radar-homer on the other side. To
accommodate the R530 in its radar-homing version, a Magnavox
AN/APQ-104 radar was fitted, together with a modified AN/AWG-4 fire
control system.

F-8D BuNo 147036 was used as the test airframe for the F-8E(FN) and
flew for the first time on February 27, 1964. Unfortunately, it
crashed on April 11, 1964. The first production F-8E(FN) flew on June
26, 1964, and it was assigned the task of completing the test program.

The first French Crusaders arrived at Saint Nazaire on October 5,
1964. The first Aeronavale squadron to receive the Crusader was
Flotille 12F, with Flotille 14F following six months later. Flotille
14F was re-equipped with the Super Etendard in 1978, but 14F stood
down in 1991, leaving 12F to soldier on with the Crusader as the only
Aeronavale interceptor squadron. Although a "foreign" aircraft, the
Crusader was nevertheless highly popular with its French Navy pilots,

Over the years, the armament of the F-8E(FN) has been through several
stages of upgrading. The French Crusader originally carried the Matra
R530 missile, which existed in both infrared- and semi-active
radar-homing versions. The Sidewinder infrared-homing missile was
still compatible with the F-8E(FN), but it was very rarely carried.
The enhanced Matra Super 530 was never adopted for the Crusader, since
the APQ-104 radar was not compatible with it. In late 1989, the Matra
R530 was withdrawn from service. In 1973, the Matra R550 Magic short
range infrared-homing air-to-air missile was added to the Crusader's
armament suite. The all-aspect Magic 2 was made available in 1988,
and is now the French Crusader's primary missile armament.

New F-8J wings were installed on French Crusaders in 1969, and from
1979 onward their Pratt & Whitney J57-P-20A turbojets were fitted with
new afterburners.

Aeronavale Crusaders have never seen any combat, although they have
served in war zones. In 1983, Flotille 12F flew top cover in
operations off Lebanon while Super Etendards attacked gun positions in
retaliation for terrorist attacks on French targets in Beirut. In
1987, during the Iran-Iraq war, Crusaders went into the Persian Gulf
aboard the Clemenceau in an international effort to protect shipping
against attacks by Iranian speedboats. Several interceptions of
Iranian aircraft were made, although there was no actual combat.

The Crusader has been serving with the French Navy for nearly thirty
years, and is by now quite long in the tooth. It has become
increasingly difficult to keep the aircraft operational. Since the
Crusader has been long out of production, the French Navy has to rely
on the boneyards of AMARC at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona for spare
parts, as well as having to manufacture a small number of spare parts
itself.

Currently, the Crusader is scheduled to be replaced aboard French
aircraft carriers by the Dassault Rafale M, but the first of these
aircraft will not be available until 1997 and will not be ready for
sea duty until 1998 at the earliest. In the meantime, the Crusader
will have to fill in as the Aeronavale's only carrier-based
interceptor.

In order to make the French Crusader a viable interceptor until the
end of the century, the surviving F-8E(FN)s were scheduled to go
through an extensive upgrade to increase their service life. As part
of the upgrade, a new zero-zero capable Martin-Baker ejector seat was
to be installed, and the airframe was to be reinforced and
strengthened. The wiring and the hydraulic system were to be
replaced. The cockpit instruments were to be rearranged and and there
was to be a new avionics suite fitted which included a radar
altimeter, IFF, ILS, and VOR. The gyroscopic navigation system of the
Mirage F1 was to be adopted. A Thomson-CSF Sherloc radar warning
receiver was to be mounted in a vertical fin extension. The first
upgraded F-8E(FN) was completed in June of 1992, and by September
1994, 12 aircraft had been modified. The upgrade program should be
completed by the end of 1995.